At a meeting today it was mooted that councillors question time should be dealt with severely ! Axed, reduced - or sent to the end of the agenda so bored councillors could go home and watch the football!! We will await developments, but just what do some people think back bench councillors are supposed to do ? (no rude answers please!) meantime the NHS has made an announcement about...
...when I stay up to listen to Obama, I stay awake. When I stay awake to listen to Ieuan Wynne Jones, I fall asleep. That has to be the worst, most vacuous speech I have ever heard in my life. I only got 14.53 minutes in, and had to stop. He's talking about being relevant to Wales, but nothing he said there resonated at all with me. It's all Plaid backslapping about irrelevant Plaid Cymru things. Nothing at the outset about the massive problems facing Wales. Maybe there was some later, but to be honest, I think the terrible unemployment ...
Mark Pack quite rightly sent a pointed letter to Roger Singleton of the ISA. Mention has been made today about a review of the definition of the roles of people who might have to be vetted. However, none was made of the actual type of people who may be barred or any case studies. This was highlighted ...
Would you be comfortable with a Prime Minister being able to decide just before an election who gets to vote in the election? Or what about them personally picking the constituency boundaries to be used? I suspect not ... and a major part of the reason is that elections should be about giving the public a choice, rather than been a tool to be twisted to keep those in power still there. That's also why I believe in fixed-term Parliaments.* Why should the Prime Minister get to pick how this part of the electoral system works just to fit their ...
Following his speech to the Progress conference earlier today, Peter Mandelson answered a question about electoral reform. After defending the existing system, he went on to say: Now, does that mean to say that there is no change that could be made in our voting system in our country so that people really feel that it's fairer and more representative? No,I don't think we should reject contemplating any sort of change and I think that's something that we're going to have to address in the coming months. Hat-tip: Left Foot Forward
This is the continuation of my series of posts in response to the Lib Dems' Quality of Life consulation paper, the first of which can be found here. Taking the next three questions in one go next: 6. Should there be compulsory limits to working hours? Can employees make a genuinely free choice to opt-out of the European working time directive? Is it liberal to restrict how much we work? 7. Would a more flexible approach to working make a difference to people's happiness? How would this be achieved without creating unnecessary bureaucracy? 8. Should we incentivise part-time jobs through ...
With a looming British General Election, voters will, once again,need to consider which political party best represents their aspirations and hopes for the future. The Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for greater transparency and accountability from our elected representatives, have long been committed champions for locally driven solutions and ideas to tackle pressing needs in our local communities and have long espoused the dangers of foreign misadventures and unscrupulous bankers. The choice for voters in the forthcoming British General Election should not be curtailed to that of the Labour and Conservative parties. Many voters are tired of the old and ...
Don't look for controversy: What trait do you most admire about farmers? Their passion for the industry and their determination in the face of huge adversity. What trait do you least like about farmers? The fact they remain unappreciated and unrewarded by a market which ignores their role as environmental stewards of the countryside as well as food producers. Read the whole thing here.
This is the front page story on today's Leicester Mercury: People campaigning to save a historic bridge in Leicester have vowed to take "direct action" when the bulldozers move in to demolish the landmark. The Bowstring Bridge protesters would not say exactly what form the action would take, but said the contractors who carry out the work should not expect an easy ride. Demolition of the landmark is due to begin on or about Monday, September 21.The video above shows Saturday's demonstration.
I listened to Peter Mandelson's speech on the news and while I'd like to see the government actually follow this up by commitments to scrap Trident, the ID cards, etc. Where I do agree with him on is his analysis of the Tories' "thinly disguised zeal" for cuts. I certainly don't want to go back to the 1980s and the "lost generation" of unemployed and the social and economic consequences that flowed therefrom.
I guess Kim Clijsters must now join the short, but distinguished list of famous Belgians ( I mean real Belgians, unlike Tin Tin and Hercule Poirot). It did remind me of the time Evonne Goolagong won Wimbledon against the odds, and sure enough she was nearly the last mother to win such a major tennis tournament.
Past the Natural Park, Camley Street curves under the railway leaving St Pancras station. On the other side of the bridge you come to St Pancras Old Church. This is an ancient religious site in an atmospheric part of London, though the church is probably not Christ's resting place. In the churchyard you can find the mausoleum Sir John Soane designed for himself. If it looks a little familiar it is probably because Giles Gilbert Scott, who designed the first GPO red telephone box, was a trustee of Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields at the time.
The second in my series of folk rallying to once unfashionable causes. I see Demos have published a report on what used to be called Industrial Democracy. For years Liberals argued this case to be met with general disinterest or hostility. In the aftermath of the economic crash people are beginning to look again at models for running firms and realising that the one which has been dominant for so long-increasing share owner value-has failed. As Demos says: How can firms be modelled so that not only shareholders but employees, the economy and society profit? Many of these models already ...
Dear Sir Roger, I have seen that in the media today you have asked people to "calm down" and be "rational" about how the ISA will operate. I hope therefore that you don't mind me writing you this calm letter which, I hope, will give a clear rational reason for my concerns. It is paragraph 5.6.1 of "Guidance Notes for Barring Decision Marking Process", which states in part: "even where a jury has found someone not guilty of having done something, you must always remember that, at most, this means is that the court did not find that someone did ...
I saw Stephen's posting the other day about the way history is taught in schools and thought about posting a response then. But I'm glad I didn't, as today I read another couple of articles which touch on this debate, from the appalling Melanie Philips and the mercurial Yasmin Alibhai-Brown respectively. Both bemoan the lack of historical knowledge among so many young people today, as shown by a survey that showed some people think Winston Churchill was the first man on the moon or that the vast majority of people couldn't name a single 19th century British Prime Minister. But ...
Possibly the majority of Conservatives oppose British membership of the European Union. Even more likely is that the majority of Conservative voters do. The anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) attracts a great deal of its support from people who have previously voted Tory. The case against the EU is made with wit and venom by Libertarians such as Devils Kitchen every day. Those amongst the Tories who publicly support the EU- like Ken Clarke or Chris Beazley- are roundly abused by their own side. We are told that if the Irish reject the treaty of Lisbon in their referendum ...
I've just started experimenting with video and here is the first result... Sorry about the squeezed format and the wind noise - I'll work on them! All comments welcome
So in the office we use a collectivist method of solving the hot beverage allocation problem. In other words, we do brew rounds, or tea rounds. Rather than get your own drink when you want one, we must make a drink for everyone else in the office who wants one, and we take turns on a round robin basis. I've been mulling on this pretty much all year, because I hate it. I really really hate it. I'm told I'm not really a 'team player' - which is certainly true in respect of the brew rounds, but I've been doing ...
Well, if I'd realised how many hits a blog gets just from saying "Beatles", I'd have done that years ago. Beatles Beatles Beatles... you have a go... I do hope some of you stick around and read my other stuff (especially those of you who came linked from a Doctor Who site – I have tons ...
Nader Fekri's emergency motion calling for democracy in Iran has been turned down by the Lib Dems' Conference Committee because it was regarded as not being sufficiently of an emergency nature. What a nuisance the Iranian tyrants are not to have timetabled their announcement of the the prosecution (persecution) of those who protested against Iran's sham elections to fit in with the needs of the Lib Dems' Conference Committee. Haven't they any sense of urgency?
Trams have long been one of the iconic symbols of the Portuguese capital, especially the little wood-lined carriages that beetle up and down the city's cobbled, hilly streets. Perhaps the most celebrated of all is the one I've been taking every day to get home to a friend's apartment in Graça. It makes its way ...
The new Liberal Youth executive seem to be doing a sterling job at the moment. Straight off the back of recieving much improved freshers materials this year they have launched a new grant scheme for Liberal Youth branches. This scheme will allow any branch to apply for up to £200 of funding for one off projects. In Leeds we are lucky to recieve funding for our events that take place at the student union from the union itself and we are lucky to be large enough to raise our own funds. However other branches often can't afford to put on ...
You have to hand it to Brendan Barber, the head of the Trades Union Congress, realising that for once the media would be very interested in what the unions have to say, has given Gordon Brown something of a hard act to follow. His warning of four million unemployed and riots on the streets might ...
The Independent Safeguarding Authority's (ISA) proposals have come under heavy criticism today. However, I have to agree with the head of the scheme, Sir Roger Singleton, who rightly claims that with balance and rationality, the proposals will allow for a safer society for our children. On a side note, I think it is also interesting to reflect on Martin Kettle's article and argument that Britain is illiberal and that is one of the three reasons that the Liberal Democrats will find it hard to ever gain power. To counter this, I think it is important to consider how the core ...
SOUTHPORT have been handed a home draw in the Second Qualifying Round of the FA Cup. The Sandgrounders will host Northern League side Spennymoor Town on Saturday September, 26 looking to avenge last season's Third Qualifying Round defeat to Boston United.The Visiter has more here
Radio Four's PM programme this evening. Mandelson for Labour is talking about spending wisely, not throwing money at problems. Ken Clarke for the Tories is saying whichever party wins the next election they'll need to make cuts and Labour are being dishonest. Both resonable positions; both sensible forays into the cut-and-thrust of political debate. So what is the Lib Dem position reported as? Apparently, the Lib Dems attacked both parties for "pre-election positioning"? What did we expect them to do? I don't know if the report of the Lib Dem line is accurate or not, but it came across as ...
The Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams has given her backing to the Federal Party's 'Real Women' airbrushing in advertising campaign. The online campaign is also backed by the National Centre for Eating Disorders, Girlguiding UK and leading academies. The campaign is encouraging people to complain to the Advertising Standards Agency and the Committee of Advertising Practice about adverts which portray unrealistic and unhealthy body images. The campaign also seeks a ban on adverts aimed at under-16s using digital retouching to portray unrealistic body images. Beat, the leading UK charity for people with eating disorders and their families, ...
Back in the 1980s my employer, encouraged by some important orders I'd picked up in what we then called Eastern Europe, asked me to try to build up a distribution network in as many countries as I could. In creating this customer base, I made a number of good friends in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia. It was good business, though never easy, and my sympathy with the many friends I made there led me to take more time over it than perhaps I should have. I'm pleased to say that after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was ...
Just seen this post about what went wrong in Harrow when the English Defence League (EDL) were protesting outside a mosque. There is always a danger that anti-fascist protests will turn violent and by doing so damage the cause that they are trying to further. The EDL are planning to hold a protest in Leeds City Centre on October 31st. Just hope this doesn't happen here.
I've read so, so many blog posts over the past few days, about the ISA. We've had fantastic discussions, and all of us have absolutely and totally agreed with each other. Some of us have said you're wrong about why the ISA is wrong, but none of us have actually disagreed with the principle... which is, you guessed it, that it's wrong. So where do we go from here? We've got the group I set up, "Trust Not Fear". Also the group "I am NOT a paedophile." Anyone else set one up? Anyone want to be an admin on my ...
Last week we had David Cameron and his subsidised House of Commons salads. Today we've had Lord Mandelson serve up ideas far less substantial than a handful of rocket leaves. Such is the quality of the debate on public spending from the Tories and Labour, I suppose. In his interview on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning, Mandelson floated a few ideas about how public money might be saved. They included scrapping a replacement for Trident and ditching ID cards. Were we getting somewhere? Were Labour finally admitting that, with government borrowing topping £175,000,000,000 this year, the growing ...
Ah, the Daily Mail. The champion of the law-abiding citizen, the sort of paper that would surely regard someone boasting about how they wilfully endangered people to be beyond the pale and worthy of condemnation. Well, you'd think that, but then you're not the Daily Mail executive who thought it would be a good idea to get James Martin (if you don't know who he is, he's celebrity cookery's version of Alan Titchmarsh) to write their motoring column for them in which he does just that. Like most wannabe motoring writers, James likes to think he's the new Jeremy Clarkson. ...
The consensus in the media, on the blogs and elsewhere from Plaid Cymru's Conference last weekend is that Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP, Adam Price took Llandudno by storm. His speech which can be found here and here (David Jones MP please note) is certainly impressive, hitting all the right notes for a nationalist audience, providing a personal narrative, touching upon some totemic symbols such as Tryweryn and Rebecca and firmly positioning Plaid Cymru on the anti-Tory, socialist left. In fact Adam was so good that people stopped talking about the earlier, woeful performance of his Leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones, ...
Can it really be party conference season already? In Wales it can, as Plaid popped off to Llandudno last weekend where no-one noticed them (so what's new...) In any case, what self-respecting journalist is going to waste their time on things that are actually happening when there's good speculatin' to be had? Leaving On A Rhoose Plane The target of said speculation is of course Rhodri Morgan, whose stated retirement date (his 70th birthday) is now just over two weeks away. With departure supposedly imminent, the pretenders to the throne have crept back into the shadows to avoid the appearance ...
Yesterday Jeff drew our attention to a story in the Sunday Herald about Lib Dem MEP George Lyon employing his girlfriend in a £36,000 job in his new office. As I couldn't find the story on the online edition of the paper I wasn't able to make comment, but thought it strange (until Jeff pointed out otherwise) that the story from the print edition had not made the online copy. Sadly the only other paper covering the story is that Red Top that all Red's fans have boycotted for 20 years. But from that I've cleaned the response through his ...
Can it really be party conference season already? In Wales it can, as Plaid pop off to Llandudno this weekend where no-one will notice them (so what's new...) In any case, what self-respecting journalist is going to waste their time on things that are actually happening when there's good speculatin' to be had? Leaving On A Rhoose Plane The target of said speculation is of course Rhodri Morgan, whose stated retirement date (his 70th birthday) is now just over two weeks away. With departure supposedly imminent, the pretenders to the throne have crept back into the shadows to avoid the ...
Interesting idea over at Mark Reckons. All the major parties should send on ethnic minority British politicians. If they did this would Griffin refuse to share a platform with them (since he believes that black-british, asian-british etc. people do not exist)? I'm not so sure about the idea to be honest. Probably just gives them more publicity than they deserve.
In a post about drugs I wrote a few weeks ago, I noted that there had been an apparent recent increase in the number of calls for decriminalisation, and now I'm wondering whether we might be reaching a point of critical debating mass on the issue where the number of people who just want the subject to be openly debated will be too large to be ignored. Well, the little snowball continues to grow as it reaches the mass required. First, Mark Reckons has an interesting interview with former Conservative minister Phillip Oppenheim: We have pretty much the tougest laws ...
Seems the Labour 'twitterati' are coming up with suggestions for who should represent Labour against the BNP. Kerry McCarthy MP, Labours 'New Media' guru (well she is on Twitter, a lot!) has set this #BNPqt hashtag for people to suggest a Labour politician to face Griffin.
Redcar and Cleveland Council's newly-appointed Town Centres Manager Pat Cambage is gearing up to the main challenge of reviving the fortunes of Redcar Town Centre. Pat, who went to school in Redcar and studied at Teesside University, brings a wealth of business experience to the role - and an understanding of the area. He said: "I've a lot of friends in the area, I know a lot of the business people so I have a vested interest in helping the community." His varied working life began by completing a trainee pub management course over evenings and weekends at the Red ...
interesting consultation exercise from EU on #gov2.0 at http://eups20.wordpress.com/
The 11 September edition of the Politics Online email newsletter featured the following piece from myself in the Sound Off section: There are two broad areas where US political debate has for years often seemed quite baffling to British ears: gun control and health care. To most British ears the idea that the ability to own a gun should be a fundamental, sacred right or that providing health coverage automatically for everyone is a sign of extreme left-wing thinking, has always sounded very strange. In the past, though, there have been few ways to express that puzzlement / bemusement / ...
Having championed allotments when they were out of fashion it is good to see so many people and organisations now rallying to the cause. The New Local Government Network is the latest with the publication today of their pamphlet: 'Can you dig it?-meeting the community demand for allotments'. You can download it for free here. Essentially they argue that local authorities should manage their 'brown field' sites better making some into allotment as they await development. They also identify that landowners can contribute to meeting this demand and call upon the Government to offer tax incentives for landowners to allow ...
I've been selected to be the Lib Dem PPC for Garston and Halewood. I have stood in the General Election in the constituency before, although this will be the first time it has included Halewood (it used to be Liverpool Garston). The General Election isn't that far away now. Can't wait.
Over at Scotland on Sunday, Nick Clegg has an article arguing that "It's the Liberal Democrats who have the record, the strength and the vision to change politics for good". Here's an excerpt: It's liberals who invented the state pension and the NHS, liberals who were first to campaign to protect the environment and liberals who first put concern for human rights into our foreign affairs. The Liberal Democrats are a pioneering party - the party of Charles Kennedy and Ming Campbell, who stood up against jeers and derision to campaign against the illegal invasion of Iraq. We led calls ...
For those of you interested in Federal Lib Dem Conference, you can keep up with events on twitter by following the #ldconf hashtag. We summoned all our imagination before Spring conference to give Welsh Conference, taking place a few weeks later in Wrexham, the #wldconf hashtag. If you prefer to get details of updates to this blog via twitter you can follow us. A number of Welsh Lib Dems twitter, with varying regularity and humour. Kirsty Williams Peter Black Cllr John Dixon (Cardiff) Our sister site, Lib Dem Voice, also offers twitter updates, as does the Federal Party. On a ...
I recently interviewed former Conservative Minister Phillip Oppenheim about his views on drugs policy in this country. He was a minister under John Major but is no longer an MP and is now a motivational speaker and businessman. He is also managing director of the Cubana bar and restaurant in London. He does however still keep his hand in with politics and regularly writes for the Party Political Animal blog. His answers gave me an interesting insight into the views on the progressive wing of the Conservative Party. My questions are in bold and Phillip's answers are in italics: You ...
I was delighted to discover recently, from the Ham+High rather than from the council of which I am an elected member, that another piece of the sustainable streetscape jigsaw is to be put into place on Fitzjohns Avenue. Two years ago I chaired a blue skies group made up of councillors, parents, residents and cyclists, which sought to come up with a safer and greener plan for Fitzjohns Avenue, the epicentre of the school run. We suggested a 20mph speed limit policed not by bumps but by average speed cameras which have worked so well on Britain's motorways. Some residents ...
esterday's papers were filled with comment on a poll carried out by YouGov for the Policy Exchange think tank. Most of them focused on trust in government, but, as is always the case with these polls, there was a little more to it than they could fit in the headlines. The full details of the poll ...
I seem to remember that when the government gave up on using the WMD excuse for the war in Iraq they changed their reasoning to the Human Rights argument. Seems to me that both the Iraqi and Afghani regimes are not living up to their committments on human rights. This article in the Observer follows the recent law passed in Afghanistan that basically legalises rape within marriage and allows a husband to starve their wife. Are we failing the people of Iraq and Afghanistan here or should we be allowing them to make their own laws and set their own ...
Brendan Barber is absolutely right. I'm so glad we've moved on from the days when the governing party's economic incompetence led to recession which left 3 million people on the dole. I'm delighted we no longer have a government which attacks some of the poorest people in scoiety, taking away their benefits and even turning them out of their homes if they can't work. It makes a refreshing change not to have a government which blindly supports right-wing Republican presidents in their military escapades. It's terrific not to have a government which panders to the right-wing tabloid press on issues ...
I went to an excellent garden party at Hackney Liberal Democrats yesterday afternoon where I learnt that there is solid data that supports the notion that unequal societies are worse for everybody, whether the Lib Dems narrative does or doesn't support that and not to attempt to drive in London on a Sunday. Ever. Geoffrey J Payne (as opposed to Geoff Payne) is very good at putting together the most interesting speaking events and he had invited Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett, the author of 'the Spirit Level: Why more equal societies almost always do better' and my husband*, Neil ...
It seems even the weather has a downer on the international banking community. Typhoon Koppu is predicted to bring "sustained winds of up to 116kmh" to Hong Kong, where the global banking conference SIBOS is taking place. Could give a whole new meaning to bankers' spinning their way out of a crisis. ...
So, after much hue and cry, Birmingham City Council's new website has been switched on. The major difference is that there is now a working search facility (based on Google), which is a huge improvement. But, for now, the new website is basically the text on the old website (some of which has been updated or changed) with a new skin (although a lot seems have gone on behind the scenes to create
Hope you had a good summer. With the conference season now in full sway, we just wanted to let you know about the Social Liberal Forum's own plans next week. Please do come to our fringe meeting next Monday. PARTY CONFERENCE The Social Liberal Forum will be holding a joint fringe meeting with Compass on Monday 21 September at 20:15-21:15 in Connaught 1, the Connaught Hotel. "Overcoming political barriers to equality" will feature Steve Webb MP and Neal Lawson, the Chair of Compass and author of All Consuming. Full details are available on Facebook, Flock Together and Ning. As well ...
I'm Carey Oppenheim and I'm Co-Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), the UK's leading progressive think tank. If you have been to the Liberal Democrat conference before you may have been to one of our events. The debate dominating the conferences this year is the future of politics itself – ippr is hosting a key event at each of the three main conferences where leading figures will discuss how to renew trust in politics and the crucial issues facing us in the coming general election. To open up the debate, ippr and Lib Dem Voice are asking ...
This year's West End Christmas Week - our area's ninth consecutive Christmas Week - starts on 21st November - and this year it is titled 'West End Xmas Factor'! We have already held two meetings of the informal group of residents, local businesses, councillors and other volunteers who help put Christmas Week together and Christmas Week is already taking great shape! The next meeting of the Christmas Week group will take place on Thursday 24th September at 2.30pm at the Tartan Coffee House, 53 Perth Road, and all interested are welcome to attend. The week will launch on Saturday 21st ...
Yesterday the Sunday Times published it's university profiles. On the Leeds Uni profile page they published comments from Leeds Uni Unions very own Jak Codd. Seems Jak wants to start something with Leeds Met! This is from the article: Worst feature Leeds Metropolitan is just 10 minutes down the road. Bad Jak!
I've got a guest post over on Daily Blog Tips: Knowing when and why to use paragraph breaks is something that most of us were taught at school and, if it doesn't come to us instinctively, is frequently got wrong. However, it is a key skill to ensure your posts are easy to follow and retain your readers through till the end. So if your instincts aren't working well, what should you do? You can read the full post here. Related posts:Do your blog comments make a good impression? I've got a guest post today over on Daily Blog...WordPress blog ...
2 Big Stories Guardian: 'executive pay keeps rising' Today's Guardian reports: Executives at Britain's top companies saw their basic salaries leap 10% last year, despite the onset of the worst global recession in decades, in which their companies lost almost a third of their value amid a record decline in the FTSE. The Guardian's annual survey of boardroom pay reveals that the full- and part-time directors of the FTSE 100, the premier league of British business, shared between them more than £1bn. Bonus payouts were lower, but the basic salary hikes were more than three times the 3.1% average pay ...
Another development whilst I was away was Sky announcing they plan to hold a Leaders Debate during the General Election. This is a very good idea and should be supported, you can show your support at http://skynewsleadersdebate.epetitions.net/
The government never sleeps, or so it would seem from this answer to Parliamentary questions from Hansard, April 1996: Mr. French To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proposals he has to improve safety at roundabouts. Mr. Norris In line with the Government's policy of reducing all road traffic accidents, safety at roundabouts is kept under constant review. Liked this story? Find other gems from Hansard on my archive page for this series of posts. Related posts:Hansard gems: What's the shortest sentence someone has served for murder? It's December 1993 and Labour is looking for ways to...Hansard gems: ...
MONTHS on from the first outbreaks, swine flu is still causing havoc around the world. Just this week the vicious virus even made its way into the Opik office and infected my researcher Baz! Interestingly the Tamiflu medicine seems to have made him sicker than the disease. However, he seems to be recovering from the Tamiflu quite well now. With tens of thousands of new cases around Europe every single week some countries are taking extreme measures to try and get things under control. Romance In France, a country renowned for romance, the government has issued a warning against kissing! ...
What's the government's answer to a bunch of MPs taking large sums from the public purse? Why, to set up a body which will pay people more than MPs are paid to make sure that MPs aren't paid too much! such is the Humpty Dumpty world of knee-jerking Gordon and his dog whistlers, as he ...
So, the SNP minority government, always on the eye out for a way to make a quick buck are considering taxing cyclists.Give me strength. The draft Cycling Action Plan for Scotland which had been released for public consultation contained this daft proposal. Don't get me wrong, this Plan does contain some positive objectives such as setting a target that by 2020, 10% of all journeys in Scotland are by bike - let's see if SNP ministers start the trend? Only if the ministerial car has a bike rack? However, a cycling tax is one of the most stupid things I've ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1M5XuPtPk0 My first ever party political broadcast - it was easy, it was cheap, go and do it!
Gordon Brown's apology for the treatment of Alan Turing has reminded me of the time in the early 1980s when I was working in London selling chess computers. As part of this work I went out to Chalfont St Giles to visit Harry Golombek, then the chess correspondent of The Times. He had been British champion three times in the forties and fifties, and had been a member of the British team at the 1939 chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires, which was abandoned when war broke out. Like several top chess players, Golombek was then recruited to Bletchley Park to ...
David Smith has already argued that perhaps spending cuts won't damage an economic recovery as much as feared - I took this on briefly elsewhere- but the debate is, if anything, going to get more heated as we head into conference season. Somehow, Daniel Hannan has stolen from John Redwood the mantle of "Most Scary Tory". That means "scary for David Cameron" as much as anything. But I think the old champ is fighting back: here he is on splendidly lunatic form blaming most of the credit crunch on monetary policy errors as if everything that went nuts in £4trn ...
Bizarre as it may seem I used to be in a Union, not only that I was the Health & Safety representative for NALGO when I worked for Nottinghamshire County Council. I was appalled then at the "jobs for the boys" approach that the Union worked to and still am today. I saw blatant discrimination by other Union reps which ended up in me resigning not only as the Health & Safety Rep but also from the Union itself. I crossed a picket line too, again because the strike was only benefiting the full time shop stewards and main union ...
So, Serena Williams was one set down and badly losing the second to Kim Clijsters in the US Open semi-final, she was 15-30 down and on a second serve, when it all went wrong! Badly wrong. The line judge called a foot fault and that was that, Serena turned and said "If I could, I would take this ball and shove it down your throat and kill you" - now the real quote has lots of F words in between as well. If you want to see the full effect there is a YouTube video, posted within minutes apparently. Anyhow, ...
Why did I get a shiver down my spine when I saw this email? Scary!
The headline in today's Sunday Times is 'cut public spending say voters'. It seems that if we are to solve the problem of public debt then the public wish to cut spending. This may not sit well with the Conservative Lancashire County Council who recently increased borrowing in order to balance the books. Equally Gordon Brown will be feeling uneasy about any furthe tax increases. In my experience of knocking on doors I very rarely hear requests to cut expenditure. I frequently hear requests for better services. Why are our roads in such poor condition? Why don't the council cut ...
